A long-running Irish blog with reviews of the best restaurants in Dublin and throughout Ireland. Some wine and cocktails thrown in for good measure!

Friday, March 20, 2009

A Florentine Death - Michele Giuttari

A Florentine Death was originally published in Italian, but has been translated into English by Howard Curtis. I only found out at the end of the novel that the author is an Italian policeman who once was head of the Squadra Mobilia in Florence and was responsible for cracking a case known as The Monster of Florence and returned a Velazquez painting to a church from where it was stolen. Well, the main character is the head of the Squadra Mobilia in Florence, is also responsible for cracking a case called the Monster of Florence, returning a Velazquez painting to a church from where it was stolen and is called Michele Ferrara. Well, fancy that for coincidence!!

The story centres around a series of initially unconnected murders, where it turns out that all the victims were homosexual. Ferrera figures out that there is one killer, and that the killer has him firmly in his sights.

Giuttari was special advisor to the Italian PM on the matter of organised crime, so I presume that he's fairly famous in his neck of the woods. Maybe that explains how this novel got published. To be honest, it's fairly banal stuff with dull cardboard characters and cliched dialogue. It received wide acclaim in the Italian press, so maybe something got lost in translation.

1 comment

Click for more details

Follow

About me

Hi, I'm Joanne, a technology consultant living in Dublin, Ireland. I've been blogging for over 9 years on Stitch & Bear, and I invite you to follow me on my food and drink journey in Ireland and wherever the wind takes me